【正文】 . In r eadi ng English li terature, a student should have t he power to discern how human bei ngs tr ansl at e thei r experi ence i nto ar ti st ic expresion and r epresentation。 how wri ters, t hr ough their cr eati ve i mpulses, convey to us thei r i nsights into human desti ny and human lif e。 style 3. What is Fi ct ion? Fi ct ion, the gener al ter m for invented st or ies, now usual y applied to novels, shor t stori es, novel la, r omances, fables, and other nar rati ve works in prose, even though most pl ays and nar rative poems ar e al so f ictional . ( P. 83. Concise Dictionar y of Lit er ar y Ter ms) 4. The St or y and the Novel To r ead novels for st or y is not hi ng wr ong, but nothing profesional ei ther . ―One mar k of a secondr ate mi nd i s to be al ways teli ng stori es.‖ The remar k by t he French wr iter jean de La Bruyere ( 1645~1696) is al so t rue of t he r eader. I f t he purpose of t he novel is only t o tel st or ies, it could as wel l r emai n unbor n, for newspaper s and hi st or y books are suf fi ci ent to sati sf y peopl e‘ s desi re for st or ies about bot h pr esent and past, and even about f ut ure. I n fact , many newapapermen have been di sat isfied wit h t hei r job of r eporti ng and e into t he f ield of novel wri ting. Defoe, Di ckens, Joyce, Hemingway and Camus were among the most famous and t he most successf ul conver ts. Even histori ans may feel obl iged t o do more t han mere stories or f acts. Edwar d Gibbor n‘ s Decline and Fal of t he Roman Empir e is praised not onl y for its mult itudinous facts and r at ionali sti c analysi s, but mor e for its beauty of nar at ive st yl e. In t eli ng stories, the novelist ai ms at something higher or he i ntends to add something to t he mere “f act s.” As i ndicated in t he defini tion of the novel , what makes a novel is t he noveli st ?s st yl e (personalized presentation of the st ory) and interpretation of the st ory. Chapter One Plot I. What is Plot? 1. According to Ar istotle what are the six elements of t he str uctur e of tr agedy? Tragedy as a whol e has just si x const ituent elem ents… and they are plot, characters, verbal expresion, t hought , visual adornment, and song—posit ion. For t he elements by which they i mitate are t wo (ver bal expresion and song—posit ion) , t he manner in which they i mi t ate is one (visual ador nment) , t he t hi ngs they i mit at e ar e t hree ( plot, charact er s, thought ), and t here i s nothing more beyond t hese. 2. What is Plot under the pens of modern noveli st s and st or yt el lers? And how to understand ―Plot‖ in a story? (―‖ppt: ?The queen died, no one knew why, until it was di scovered that it was through grief at t he death of the ki ng.‘… P. 6 I t suspends the time sequence, it moves as f ar away f rom t he story as its l imit at ions wi l al low.) The story and t he char acter al one can not make a novel ye. To make a novel, apl ot i s pr er equisi te. A look at the example suggested by E. M. Forster wil hel p to dis tingui sh between the story and t he plot. ―The king di ed and then t he queen di ed‖ is not a plot, but a st or y. I f we make i t ―The ki ng died and then the queen died of gri ef ,‘ we have a pl ot . This causal phrase ―of gr ief‖ indicat es our inter pr et at ion and thus ar angement of the happenings. I n the wor ld of real ity events take pl ace one after another in t he natural t emporal or der, but in t he worl d of f iction it is t he noveli st ‘s design that one par ti cular event occur aft er another par t i cular event. The very word ―pl ot ‖ impli es the novelist‘ s r ebeli on agai nst the natural law and his endeavor t o make meanings out of the happenings t hat m ay other wise be meaningles. ―The happeni ngs‖ m ay or may not be real happenings. (So what plot i s ) A pl ot is a par ticular ar rangem ent of happenings i n a novel that i s aimed at r eveal ing thei r causal r el ati onshi ps or at conveying the novel ist‘s i deas. A plot i s omet imes caled a st ory li ne. The most import ant of the tr adit ional pl ot is t hat it shoul d be a plete or uni fied acti on, that i s, something with a begi nning, a mi ddle, and an end. 3. The dr amati c si tuat ion in a st ory. 4. The three par ts of a plot: a beginning (exposi tion), a middl e (suspense or a series of suspense … .f or eshadowi ng… cr isis –a moment of hi gh t ensi on) , and an end(a cli max, the moment of gr eatest ensi on… t he conclusion—fali ng action, r esolution or denouement). Plot a begi nning a middl e an end exposit ion some ot her event s clim ax ( the m om ent (suspense, a series of suspense, of great est tension, f or eshadowi ng, cr isis) the concl usionf al ling act ion, resol ut ion or denouement ) II. Read t he stories of ?Ri p Van Winkl e‘ (Washi ngton Ir ving) and ?David Swan‘ ( Nat haniel Hawthor ne) II. Quest ions: (Finish reading the two stori es and point out t he plots of the two stories, t he descripti ve details, the exposit on, charact er s) Rip Van Winkl e 1. Descri pt ive details: the pl ot of the stor y? 2. What part of t he story seems li ke t he exposi ti on? 3. Wher e does t he dr amatic conf li ct? 4. What is the cl imax of t he story? David Swan 5. the plot of the st or y? 6. How f ul ly does the aut hor dr aw the char acters i n the st or y? ( Charact er t raits are t he quali ti es of a char acter‘ s personalit y. They are revealed through a char acter‘ s actions and wor ds and through descripti on) . 7. Mor e wor ks t o do: something about the wri ters of t he t wo st or ies. Chapter Two Character I n the intr oduct ion we have said that f iction is an image of people in act ion, movi ng towar ds an undeclared end. Thus char acter is al ways invol ved in f iction, even i n t he st ory of t he simplest act ion. Som et